CHICAGO -- Jordan Roderick-Fried is fast and explosive on the field. On Monday morning she was literally gliding, vibrating with enthusiasm and excitement.

Thinking her season and high school career were over after she feared a torn meniscus in her right knee, an MRI showed only a deep bruise near the cruciate ligament that she had surgery on four years earlier.

The upshot: Roderick-Fried has been cleared to play in the Lions’ regional semifinal against host Wildkits on Tuesday in Evanston.

It was a bracing and lilting moment when she told the rest of the team.

“Everybody seemed excited and everything,” Roderick-Fried said. Any chance the Lions have of competing with Evanston was grounded in the availability of Roderick-Fried, who scored four goals in a 6-0 victory over Mather in a Chicago Public League tournament pool game May 4.

Her knee felt awkward and tender that night. The next day she could hardly walk. She missed the team’s last four games, including a loss against Taft that knocked the Lions out of the city tournament

A gradual lessening of the pain has buoyed her spirits and that of the team.

“It’s so exciting,” senior captain Anisa Ciaciura said. “When I heard, I was shocked because I didn't think she’d come back for any more games. She is so powerful up-top for us. She can get my through-balls because of her stature and ability to play -- her coming back is a huge confidence booster for us.”

Lincoln Park (7-10-0) has experienced a strange and peculiar season as multiple players have been withheld from competition because of academic eligibility concerns.

Roderick-Fried scored 10 goals in the first four games and the team started 3-1-0. Optimism was high. The lack of numbers and the developmental growth made it exceptionally difficult to compete against higher-echelon programs. For multiple games this year, coach Geoffrey Ruttenberg has had only 12 to 14 players.

It is a testament to the coaching and motivational acumen of Ruttenberg and the tenacity of the existing players that they have made the best of a less than ideal situation.

“Every player on the team has given us everything they had,” Ruttenberg said. “It feels good to be a part of that. One of our goals was to remain in Premier and we accomplished that. We felt short of some of our other goals, but some of our younger players have gotten more minutes and that makes us stronger for the future.”

The players who have been on the field, Roderick-Fried, Ciaciura, senior midfielder Kyra Biedermann ano freshman midfielder Nikki Erenberg, have taken great satisfaction in their ability to keep the program aloft.

“I am proud of the way we have played and adapted to all the adversity,” Ciaciura said. “Our record is not what we hoped for. We had a lot of new players we had to learn how to play with and work with. Not having our full team this year has been a scary situation. It has also motivated us even further.

“Now, as a senior, I want to push our team and make something special.”

Roderick-Fried has scored 21 goals this year and has four multiple-goal games. The Lions are going to need to her speed on the edge in their quest. Her presence gives the Lions, the 15th-seed in the Glenbrook North Sectional, hope against the second-seeded Evanston.

“It is a tall task,” Ruttenberg said, “but we have an opportunity to accomplish something great.”

The conclusion of the state tournament marks the end of Roderick-Fried’s superb Lincoln Park career. She has scored 50 goals the last two years and put the Lions’ program on the map.

“We have other people who can score just like I can score,” said Roderick-Fried, who will continue her soccer career at Division III Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., next fall. “If I could or could not play I’d tell everybody to play how we play. Knowing we are playing Evanston, who have a lot of club and travel players, they are going to have a quick-moving, fast-passing team. We have struggled against teams like this in the past.

“I don’t know if tomorrow is going to be my last game. We are playing like it is. I personally want to go out on a high note and just play.”